This was the Year
by IsabellaNoelle
Summary: This was going to be a great year. We had an awesome show, my best friend was finally in guard. But a boy changed everything. Since when did I care about him so much? Why couldnt I get him off my mind? I need to focus on band. Theres no way this is good.


**A/N: So this is my first FanFiction! I've had this storyline in my head for like forever now and wanted to get it out in the open but couldn't think of how. I went on FanFic and saw there was a marching band category. I'm in band and knew I could easily set this story into a marching setting, so I could publish it on here. The summary is really awful, I'm sorry. I couldn't think of a good summary in that short amount of space. I promise this story is going to be better than that! Please R&R!!! I'll love you forever! OH and rated T just in case. : ]**

_This is so exciting. _I thought to myself as I drove to McCauley High School for the first Thursday night marching band rehearsal of the year. I was so pumped for this season. I just had that feeling that we were going to be a great band this year.

I got to the school and turned on the street leading to the band room. I pulled into the band lot, and parked my little, beat-up, black truck. I pulled down the visor and flipped open the mirror. I doubled checked my make-up, applied another thin layer of pink lip-gloss, and ran my finger through my medium-length brown hair. I sighed, _this is as good as its gonna get_, I thought to myself. I put the visor back into its place and opened the door. As I was gathering my instrument and dot-book, a yellow Mustang convertible parked beside my truck. Twenty seconds later, my best friend since age three, Abigail, practically leaped out of her car.

"Evelyn!" She screamed as she ran up to me to give me a huge hug. Abigail stood at a petite 5'4'' and her blond highlighted hair rested lightly on her soldiers.

"Abi!" I said as I returned the hug.

"I'm so happy you're here," Abi said as she walked over to her trunk to get her flag and rifle.

"Why wouldn't I be here?" I laughed as I closed the door on my truck. We started to walk towards the band room.

"I don't know. I'm just really nervous."

"Why are you nervous?"

"Um, maybe because this is my first band rehearsal?"

"You've been practicing with the guard all summer long."

"I know, but this is my first _full_ band rehearsal." Abigail was always the one to make a big deal about everything. I just rolled my eyes at her and walked inside the band room. As soon as I stepped through the doors I let out a sigh of complete contentment. As geeky as it sounds, the band room is my second home. During the school year my day always began and ended in the band room with frequent in between. I looked across the room to the Clarinet cubbies and spotted my group of amazing band friends and waved at them. I looked down at Abigail and she looked scared to death. Although Abi didn't have any _real_ reason to be nervous – everyone always loved Abi­ – I guess I couldn't blame her. The room was filled with a hundred plus loud, rambunctious, instrument blatting teenagers. I remembered back to my first day in the band and remembered how terrified I was.

"Everything is going to be fine," I told Abigail. She nodded her head in reply, and took a deep breath. We started walking across the room to my friends.

"Evey!!" My friend Leah said as we walked up to the group. I was greeted with hugs and smiles and a million questions about how my summer was.

"Hey guys," I replied with a smile. My band friends were the absolute best. Even though we didn't really hang out much during the summer, once band started back up it was like we had never been apart. We were all catching up on the latest gossip when one of our directors came out of the band office.

"Alrighty folks! Good to see everyone!" Mr. Walker shouted over the ruckus in the room. "Everyone start getting their instruments together and head to your sectionals." My friends and I groaned quietly to ourselves, not wanting to end all the catching up. "Winds in the piano lad, brass in here, guard and percussion outside!"

I looked down at Abigail who had uncharacteristically been rather quiet for the past five minutes, only offering a comment here and there. I gave her a quick side hug and told her that everything would be fine and she walked towards the other guard girls and started chatting one of them. I grabbed my Clarinet and music folder out of the cubby I had sat it in and waited for Leah to do the same. Leah was my best band friend. She was a year younger than me but I always seemed to forget it. She was a lot more mature than all the others in her grade.

"What's wrong with Abi?" She asked me as we headed toward the door.

"She's just nervous for no reason at all," I replied grabbing a music stand and handing it to Leah. I grabbed another one for myself and walked out the door. "Just being dramatic like always."

"Yeah," Leah laughed. As we headed up the hallway we chatted casually till we rounded a corner and stumbled across a two people having a very intense conversation. I recognized the girl to be a flute played named Shelby and it looked like she was fighting with boyfriend, Jacob. "Imagine that," Leah said as we made it into the piano lab. "The dysfunctional couple fighting yet again."

"Yeah, they fight a lot don't they? That's so sad. Why go through all that drama for some high school relationship that won't last past graduation?"

"Because they _love_ each other," Leah answered.

"That's not possible," I said as I began to get my warm-ups out and put my instrument together. "You can't fall in love in high school. It's not possible. There extremely few people who are mature enough to actually find love in high school."

"Speak for yourself." Leah said slightly smugly. I just laughed to her response. As much as I loved Leah, she could be a little boy crazy. She swore up and down that she was in love with her boyfriend, Drew, but always seemed to be falling for every other boy in the band. "Speaking of relationships, how are Abi and Austin?"

"They're doing good," I replied while closing my instrument case and placing it under my chair. "According to Abi they're 'in love'," I laughed rolling my eyes.

Just then Shelby came into the room in tears and all the flutes rushed to see what was wrong with her. I used to be really good friends with Shelby freshman year, but whenever she started dating Jacob she changed and ditched all her old friends. I looked at Leah – who had stood up to go find out what had happened – and she could tell I was annoyed. I hated drama and did not want to get sucked into it.

I looked at my warm-ups and began to do one of the arpeggio exercises when I just happened to glance out the window I was sitting by. I saw Jacob slam the door open that led to the courtyard where the drum line practiced. He looked really upset and angry. He went over to the wall where his snare drum was and sat down beside it. He placed his head in his hands and just sat there. I had never seen him so upset. Jacob was the type of person who was always very loud and outgoing. He tended to be annoying and came across a kind of stupid a lot. He hung out with the tubas and the rest of the line, who were all a little conceited at times and thought they were cooler than sliced bread. This Jacob was not the Jacob I was used to. Even when him and Shelby fought, which they did often, he was never this upset. I knew by looking at his now visible face with his disheveled blonde hair that they had officially ended their relationship.

I couldn't figure out why I felt bad for him. I had no attachment to him. I didn't even know him. There was just something about how genuinely upset he was that made me pity him. I looked to Shelby who was crowded by ten girls all trying to comfort her. I started to resent her and I couldn't figure out why. I looked away from the "it'll be okay"s and the "your too good for him"s in slight disgust and looked back to Jacob sitting all by himself. "Come on man," I heard David – the center snare – say to him. Jacob looked at him, looked back down, and with a deep breath stood up and put his drum on. He walked over to the rest of the line and started to warm-up.

Ms. Bailey walked in and asked everyone to find their seats. Leah hurried back to sit beside me and played a few notes on her instrument. Ten seconds later, Ms. Bailey's hands were up and all of out instruments followed her lead. We began to play Bb concert down by half steps. After warming-up, she handed out the music to the first movement of our show. I looked down at the opener to our Wicked the Musical show (which I was so excited about) and began to finger through the complicated parts. Ms. Bailey began to run through the music after giving us a minute to look over it.

As excited as I was about the show though, I couldn't stop thinking about Jacob, and that really bothered me. Why did I suddenly care so much about this boy that I had never really even talked to? Since when did I care if he seemed heart broken? I couldn't answer any of these questions. I decided to just try to forget about him; he was a big boy, he could get over this. Plus, I really needed to focus on the show. This was not a year to get caught up in drama. This was a year to have the best band possible. But every time I would happen to glance out the window and see him, my heart sank. I knew this wasn't good.

**A/N: Thanks for reading! Please review! If you don't I wont really have a reason to keep publishing on here. Thanks so much everyone! **

**: ]**


End file.
